The present invention relates in general to food service vending and dispensing equipment and in particular to a refillable ice dispensing apparatus for automatically dispensing cracked, chipped or cubed ice.
For several years now various apparatus have been utilized for automatically dispensing ice cubes into a user's glass or pitcher. For the most part, however, most of the conventional existing ice vending or dispensing apparatus combine the dispensing features with an ice-making system through the utilization of substantially complex mechanical conveyors and the like.
Some of the existing ice-making, ice vending apparatus are typified by a series of Weil, et al. references. The first of these inventions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,165,901 in which an ice-making and ice-crushing apparatus are integrally merged (as shown in FIG. 3). This particular invention utilizes an insulated hopper (numeral 16 as shown in FIG. 7) which is inverted and having a generally rectangular pyramidal form with downwardly and inwardly inclined walls. This invention utilizes a reciprocating block (numeral 24 as shown in FIG. 7) to align the opening of the dispenser to deliver ice to a hopper and chute. In yet another Weil et al. invention, that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,509, an ice-making and vending apparatus (as shown in FIG. 10) is similarly disclosed in which crushed ice is elevated by a scoop and discharged into a hopper. From the hopper the scoop assembly elevates the ice to dispensing means located adjacent the top of an elevator and utilizes a normally closed manually operated flap valve. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,274,792, an ice maker has been combined with a piston-type ice remover to accomplish the same general purposes of producing the ice and processing it further to a dispensing apparatus for relatively convenient utilization by a user. This is shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 of the reference patent.
In other prior art references, ice-handling apparatus have been used separately from the ice-making apparatus for the sole purposes of dispensing the ice. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,211,338, a handling apparatus (as described by numeral 24 of FIG. 2) is disclosed for combination with an ice manufacturing device for raising the level of the ice for subsequent dispensing as shown in FIG. 2.
More recently, dispensers have been utilized which have been totally nonreliant upon an ice-making machine but which are instead refillable, usually from the top, with ice for subsequent storage and dispensing. Two such references, those disclosed in FIGS. 1 and 2 of Weil et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,839 and in FIG. 1 of Whalen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,517,860, illustrate such devices.
It should be realized that the utilization of both types of dispensing apparatus, those which are combined with the ice makers, and those which are totally independent dispensing devices, have still possessed some problems. Among these problems are the lack of appropriate drainage for such devices to remove melted water from the quantity of ice stored within the dispensing apparatus to thereby preclude problems associated with substantial puddles continuously mixing with the ice. Additionally, few if any of the existing dispensing devices utilize efficient dispensing gate mechanisms which can more efficiently and more tightly seal and insulate the entire contents of such device. Further, in many of the conventional dispensing devices, ice may often jam or freeze into oversized chunks or masses of ice incapable of easily being dispensed due to the failure of the conventional device to utilize ice leveling, jogging, and antijamming devices.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an improved refillable ice dispensing apparatus which can be easily and quickly filled with a quantity of ice and which effectively insulates its frozen contents against contaminants and external temperatures to maintain the ice in its frozen form for a longer period of time.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved dispensing apparatus with means for automatic drainage, automatic activation and with improved automatic dispensing gate means for the purpose of more effectively insulating the ice therein.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which is shaped to improve dispensing characteristic of the ice from its storage position within the apparatus and which utilizes leveling and jogging features to improve distribution of the ice into the dispensing mechanism and to reduce jamming and/or clustering of the frozen contents.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in light of the present specification.